Export receipts and supporting documents for an audit: a guide for Xero users

Xero's help pages describe no bulk download for the receipts and other files attached to transactions, and its reply on Product Ideas says one is not in its plans at the moment. For an audit you either download them one transaction at a time or read them out through Xero's API. This guide covers what Xero does export, what an auditor's request needs on top, and how to pull every attached file for a period into dated folders with an index.

Checked against Xero Central on 12 October 2026 and Xero Product Ideas on 24 October 2026.

Start with what the auditor asked for

Get the request in writing: the period, the document types (sales invoices, bills, credit notes, and bank transactions such as spend money receipts), and whether they want a sample or everything. We cannot tell you what your auditor needs; their list decides. It also splits the job in two: the data (the transactions) and the files (the receipts attached to them). Xero exports the first. The second is the hard part.

What the native tools give you

• Data as CSV. Invoices, bills, credit notes, prepayments and overpayments, up to 500 transactions per export (Export invoices and bills). That is the records, not the files.
• Files one by one. Open each transaction, open the file and download it (View, download and delete files in transactions).
• The document library. Accounting > Documents, open a file, click the download icon (Organise your document library).

Where the native way runs out for an audit

• No bulk download. On the bulk export request (699 votes, "Accepted"), Xero's reply of 20 November 2025 says it is not planned at the moment, though it would like to explore bulk downloading in the longer term.
• The data export leaves the files out. Xero's list of exportable data does not include attached files.
• The library is not a full copy. A file attached from your device to a bill or expense claim is saved to the library archive; for other transactions, including invoices, it is saved there only if you uploaded it to the library first (Attach a file to a transaction).
• Files carry no context. A file keeps the name it was uploaded with, so scan001.pdf does not say which transaction it belongs to. Matching them afterwards is the real cost.
• Voided documents. Xero shows voided and deleted invoices in search when you tick Include Deleted & Voided (Delete or void an invoice). Decide with the auditor whether their files belong in the pack.
• No count. Nothing in the manual routes tells you whether you got every file.

The manual route, step by step

1. Fix the scope. Period, document types, sample or all, and whether voided documents are in.
2. Export the data. Run the CSV export for the period. Over 500 transactions, split it by date range.
3. Download the files. Open each transaction with an attachment, then View and Download for each file.
4. Rename each file to carry the date, number and contact, so it can be matched to its transaction later.
5. Check the count. Compare the files you hold with the transactions that should have one.
6. Store the pack away from the live organisation, and give the auditor a list that maps each file to its transaction.

For a few dozen documents that is fine. For a year of bills it is days of clicking. The general guide to downloading all attachments covers the same routes outside the audit setting.

The faster way: Unapprove

Unapprove is a web app that works with Xero. Its attachment export reads the files attached to your documents and streams them to you as ZIP files. The export only reads: nothing in your books changes.

How an audit pull goes

1. Connect: you sign in at Xero and choose the organisation.
2. Scan, which is free. Set the audit period as a date range and tick the document types the auditor wants: sales invoices, bills, credit notes and, if you tick them, bank transactions.
3. Read the totals: documents, files and size. That is your count to check against.
4. Download the ZIP parts. Each holds up to 200 files and 300 MB, and one document's files stay together in a part.
5. Open manifest.csv and hand it over with the folders.

What the auditor gets

• Folders by document type, year and month, with names that carry the date, number and contact, for example Bills/2025/2025-03/2025-03-14_INV-8812_Acme Supplies_receipt.pdf.
• A manifest.csv with one line per file: its path in the ZIP, document type, number, reference, date, contact, status, total, currency, original file name, size, the result, and the Xero document and attachment identifiers.
• Files byte for byte as Xero returned them. A file Xero will not hand over is listed in the manifest and in _ERRORS.txt, so a gap is visible rather than silent.
• Voided documents' files are included. Deleted documents' files are left out.

What it is not. It is not an audit trail and it does not certify that the pack is complete: the manifest lets you and the auditor check the counts. It does not export history and notes, reports, bank statements, the library inbox, or files attached to quotes, purchase orders, manual journals or contacts. Use the manual routes above for those.

Pace. About 55 files a minute, so 3,000 files take about an hour. If Xero's daily API limit stops a part, you start it again later.

What access it asks for: your name and email to sign you in, read and write on invoices and attachments, and read-only on organisation settings and contacts. Bank transactions need one more read-only permission, requested only if you tick them. The export itself only reads.

What it never does: see your Xero password, change your books during an export, or keep your files. They are streamed from Xero to your download and never stored. The scan's list of documents and their file names and sizes is kept encrypted for 30 days, or until you disconnect.

Price: the scan is free. The free trial (14 days, three documents processed in total) includes one sample download of 25 files, enough to check the layout with your auditor. Downloading everything needs a plan: $29 per month per connected organisation, or a one-off $49 Clean-up Pass for 7 days, where the export does not count against the pass's 500 documents. Fair use is 5 GB per organisation per 30 days. Prices are in US dollars and exclude VAT and sales tax (added at checkout); the pricing page has the details.

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Questions

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